Internal Scottish Government emails reveal that the study was lost in a “very odd goose chase” and became a “can of worms” in October and November 2021. “We’re still chasing round in circles,” wrote one official.
Campaigners alleged that the public had been given a “misleading” picture of what’s happened to cod in the Clyde. They claimed that the Scottish Government couldn’t be relied up to make “objective decisions”.
The government said the study had been delayed by Brexit and Covid-19, and was now being worked on. The aim was to release it “in due course”.
The rural affairs cabinet secretary, Mairi Gougeon, right, is due before the Scottish Parliament’s environment committee on 9 March to answer questions on the closure of Clyde cod spawning areas.
The Clyde Fishermen’s Association stressed it had worked with scientists on an “exploratory project” in “good faith”. There had been “much misunderstanding” about the scope and intention of the work, it said.
Cod populations in the Clyde collapsed in the 1980s and 1990s, partly due to over-fishing, and haven’t recovered since. Every year since 2002 the Scottish Government has closed cod spawning areas to some fishing for two and a half months in order to allow the fish to breed.
But prawn trawlers have been exempt from the ban, despite evidence that they can accidentally catch young cod. In October 2021 the Scottish Government published a consultation on proposed Clyde cod spawning closures in 2022 and 2023.
The pier at Helensburgh back in the days when it was a fishing port.